Is the mainstream media dying, and what does that mean for democracy? Emmy Award-winning journalist Danny Schechter, "The News Dissector," takes a close look at today's big media news outlets, the new media striving to replace them, and the impact it is all having on the health of our democracy. A self-proclaimed "refugee" from mainstream media-Schechter was a producer at ABC's 20/20 and at CNN-he examines the evidence: plummeting newspaper circulation, the dive in network ratings, relentless media scandals and the loss of credibility, unprecedented media concentration, the rise of aggressive partisan "news," and more. It's no wonder, he says, that polls have put media dissatisfaction-even among media people themselves-at up to 70 percent. Yet a healthy, active media is crucial to the functioning of a democracy. So how do we revitalize the fourth estate? In a book that is half manifesto and half piercing investigation, Schechter searches for an answer, first by exploring the promise of new media-the Internet, webcasts, satellite TV and radio, podcasts, and other new forms rapidly being born. This, in turn, leads him to consider how these new outlets are fueling the movement for democracy in media and the rise of citizen journalism-efforts by average citizens to reclaim the public airwaves. It is, in the end, an inspiring guide to what can be done now, and thanks to Schechter's passion and his vast experience, it is also something more: a brilliant and thrilling look at a turning point in our history. Danny Schechter is the executive editor of Mediachannel.org, where he also maintains a daily media blog. While a Neiman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University, he was also news director of the legendary Boston rock station WBCN-FM. Schechter subsequently became one of the first producers at CNN and later won two Emmys as a producer for ABC's 20/20. His independent film, WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception, analyzes media coverage of the Iraq war.

The Death of Media: And the Fight to Save Democracy (Melville Manifestos)

History

Schechter, Danny

Americas

Melville House

PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal

Danny Schechter, Emmy-Award investigative journalist, film producer and author, has been one of the earliest pundits warning about the current crisis. In his 2006 film, IN DEBT WE TRUST, Schechter exposed the role Wall Street played in promoting deceptive and dodgy subprime lending. In Plunder: Investigating our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, he documents the causes, from Wall Street greed to the failure of government and the media.

Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal

Business & Money

Economics

Cosimo Books

Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela

From the makers of the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, a completely unique biography and thematic telling of the story of Nelson Mandela. This book, which provided key source material for the film, is an unexpurgated collection of the views and opinions of South Africa's first Black president, and it draws on Danny Schechter’s forty-year relationship with "Madiba," as Nelson Mandela is known in his native South Africa. 
Each chapter of this unique portrait corresponds to a letter of the alphabet, and the letters cover major and minor, unexpected and fascinating themes in Mandela’s life and his impact on others: Athlete, Bully, Comrade, Forgiveness, Indigenous, Jailed, Militant, and President, to name a few. The book quotes liberally from Mandela himself, his ex-wives and other family members, global leaders, Mandela's cellmates and guards on Robben Island, the team behind Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, former president F. W. de Klerk, members of the South African Police, and his comrades including his successor Thabo Mbeki. Madiba A to Z reveals sides of Nelson Mandela that are not often discussed and angles of the anti-apartheid movement that most choose to brush under the table in order to focus on the happy-ending version of the story. As Schechter reports in the book, according to Mandela's successor as president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, “the fundamental problems of South Africa, poverty, inequality, have remained unchanged since 1994.” This is partly because, as Schechter writes, “six months before the 1994 elections, when South Africa was being governed jointly by the ANC and the National Party under a Transitional Executive Council (TEC), there were secret negotiations about the economic future.” There are many rarely spoken of revelations in Madiba A to Z, a book about Mandela’s brilliance, his courage, his tremendous impact in saving his country and its people of all races, but one that also shows how far South Africa still has to go.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Seven Stories Press

As modern-day muckraker Danny Schechter writes in his new introduction, exclusive to this Cosimo Classics edition: "In this era of financial crisis compounded, and even perhaps enabled, by a dearth of investigative reporting, it is valuable to go back in time to learn from the work of great journalists with the courage to have taken on avaricious corporations and irresponsible business practices. "Perhaps no book demands our attention and respect as much as the one now in your hands. The unabridged edition, long out of print, of Ida Tarbell's study/expose of the history of the Standard Oil Company is an American classic, a model of careful research, detailed analysis, clear expository writing, and social mission. It has been hailed as one of the top ten of journalism's greatest hits." In this book, offering Volumes I&amp;II, Tarbell explores: • the birth of the oil industry • the rise of the Standard Oil Company • the "oil war" of 1872 • the beginnings of the oil trust • the first interstate commerce bill • battles over oil pipelines • the marketing of oil • the political response to Standard's domination • breaking up the oil trust • competition in the oil industry • and more. IDA MINERVA TARBELL (1857-1944) is remembered today as a muckraking journalist, thanks to this 1904 blockbuster exposé. Originally published as a series of articles in McClure's magazine, this groundbreaking work highlighted the dangers of business monopolies and contributed to the eventual breakup of Standard Oil. Investigative journalist DANNY SCHECHTER is editor of Mediachannel.org and author of numerous books on the media, including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal (Cosimo). For more, see www.newsdissector.com/plunder.

The History of the Standard Oil Company ( 2 Volumes in 1)

Tarbell, Ida M.

Cosimo Classics

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: The Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States, Including Dissenting Views

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Cosimo Reports

Danny Schechter the "News Dissector," a veteran journalist, filmmaker, and participant in many social movements, began covering Occupy Wall Street for Al Jazeera and other leading websites, international TV News programs, and Progressive Radio Network shows. Occupy collects his essays, blog reports, and movement documents. As the filmmaker behind "In Debt We Trust" (2006) and "Plunder: The Crime of Our Time" (2010), Danny Schechter has specialized in exposing Wall Street crime in three books and many reports. He says, "This is the movement we have been waiting for to 'fight the power.' Even as debt strangled millions, and unemployment rose alongside foreclosures, economic issues only remained fodder for boring pundits and self-styled experts. There was no activist response. Until now." Schechter explains, "Occupy Wall Street has a way of touching you personally with its gutsy honesty and democratic spirit. Yet, I was not always uncritical. I want it to succeed, but I'm also aware of its many contradictions and internal conflicts." Occupy provides the News Dissector's in-depth assessment of a global revolt in the making.

Occupy: Dissecting Occupy Wall Street

A candid insider's tale of how the media really works and why it doesn't work the way it should, The More You Watch, The Less You Know has emerged as a key catalyst in the debate on media reform. The More You Watch, The Less You Know recounts Schechter's media adventures, from when he was "Danny Schechter the News Dissector" on Boston's WBCN radio, to his stints as a producer at ABC's 20/20 and CNN, to his personal odyssey chronicling the anti-Apartheid revolution in South Africa, to his development of innovative programming like South Africa Now and Rights &amp; Wrongs as an independent producer. In this age of telecommunications bills and media mergers, The More You Watch, The Less You Know is an insider’s passionate plea for freedom of the (electronic) press.

The More You Watch the Less You Know: News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures

Politics & Social Sciences

MCCHESNEY, Robert W.

Social Sciences

Humor & Entertainment

"As 'News Dissector' on Boston radio, Danny Schechter literally educated a generation..." Noam Chomsky "Danny Schechter, a kind of journalist without borders, has shaken up public broadcasting, among many other media institutions, in the course of his career as a self-styled 'News Dissector' and human rights advocate..." The Nation News Dissector brings together Schechter’s writings on human rights, politics, and the media over a span of four decades of activism and reporting, including ten years in radio news reporting and twenty years creating television news and public affairs programs and independent documentaries. These pieces provide a fascinating look at the trajectory of what was once simply called The Movement” Allen Ginsberg, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Abbie Hoffman, and other figures from the counter-culture and new left come alive in these pages. Schechter's run-ins with the FBI and the CIA provide facscinating and often entertaining reading. A large section covers Vietnam during and after the war. Throughout, Schechter exposes the practices and prejudices of the news media and proposes detailed corrective action. The collection also includes pieces of a more personal and sometimes emotional nature;the observations, impressions, and inspirations of a radical journalist. News Dissector is an enlightening book by one of the few journalists to emerge from the alternative media of the 60s and 70s with his politics and principals intact.

News Dissector

Akashic Books Ltd

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Schechter, Danny. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Schechter, Danny

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Schechter, Danny. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Death of Media: And the Fight to Save Democracy (Melville Manifestos)

Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal

Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela

Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela

The History of the Standard Oil Company ( 2 Volumes in 1)

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: The Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States, Including Dissenting Views

Occupy: Dissecting Occupy Wall Street

The More You Watch the Less You Know: News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures

The More You Watch the Less You Know: News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures

News Dissector